A RIOTOUS CARRIAGE RIDE THROUGH TIME
Somewhere between empire waistlines and leather harnesses, Regency Girls carves out a raucous, messy, and strangely moving place for itself onstage at The Old Globe. This new musical, with a book by Jennifer Crittenden and Gabrielle Allan, takes the stiff-backed decorum of Austen-era England and smashes it headfirst into contemporary fury. It is a collision that leaves the audience happily concussed.
The cast of Regency Girls
The Regency era, slipping in between 1811 and 1820, was a strange, glittering slice of British history where elegance and excess often outpaced sense. With King George III deemed unfit to rule, his son stepped in as Prince Regent, lending the period its name. Society obsessed over appearances: lavish balls, strict etiquette, cutting-edge fashion, and scandalous gossip. Beneath the polished veneer, though, the country wrestled with economic strain, political unrest, and the uneasy birth of the modern age.
Marissa Rosen, Janine LaManna, and Kyla Stone
Netflix’s Bridgerton did not just nudge the Regency era back into public curiosity; it slammed it onto center stage, dressed in pastels and dripping with orchestral pop covers. Since the show’s release, there has been a noticeable spike in fascination with the early nineteenth century, but not in any dusty, textbook way. Publishers rushed to reprint Jane Austen novels with flashy new covers. Sales of empire-waist dresses, corsets, and antique-style furniture have seen real bumps. People are not just reading about the Regency anymore; they are trying to live it, filtered through Bridgerton’s lens of high drama, diverse casting, and fantasy-level opulence.
Krystina Alabado as Dabney, Isabelle McCalla as Elinor,
Ryann Redmond as Petunia, and Kate Rockwell as Jane
At first glance, the premise of Regency Girls seems perilously familiar. Another candy-colored Regency romp. Another pastel-soaked subversion of drawing-room drama. Yet Regency Girls has sharper teeth. Elinor Benton finds herself pregnant following a liaison with her dashing but absent fiancé Stanton, whose year-long voyage leaves her socially vulnerable and biologically compromised. With matrimony a year away and scandal imminent, Elinor forms an unlikely alliance with her similarly encumbered lady’s maid Dabney. Joined by Elinor’s sweetly naive sister Jane and her audaciously forthright friend Petunia, they embark on a carriage journey to London in search of the notorious Madame Restell, purveyor of discreet remedies for ladies with “female troubles.” What follows is a picaresque adventure where expectations unravel faster than corset strings.
The cast
The show’s triumph lies not just in its irreverence, but in the anger that smolders beneath its petticoats. Crittenden and Allan’s script toys gleefully with historical conventions. There are enough euphemisms for “female troubles” to fill a Victorian etiquette guide, but it never loses sight of the stakes. The right to survive one’s own life hangs heavy in the air, smuggled in under the show’s giddy comic surface.
Ryann Redmond as Petunia and Isabelle McCalla as Elinor with the cast
The Regency idealized manners and marriages, but for women, it was a gilded trap. Property, income, even their bodies, legally belonged to their husbands. Success, or survival, depended almost entirely on marriage to someone wealthy enough to stave off poverty and disgrace. The parallel to the slow dismantling of reproductive rights in contemporary America does not need much underlining.
Benjamin Howes, Nik Walker, Gabe Gibbs, and Sav Souza
Director-choreographer Josh Rhodes keeps the action lively, though not always with the firmest hand. The first act, in particular, feels like a carriage ride that lingers too long at scenic overlooks. At two hours and forty minutes, Regency Girls needs an editor’s red pen and a sharper eye for jokes that overstay their welcome.
(center) Isabelle McCalla as Elinor and Nik Walker as Stanton with the cast
Amanda Green‘s lyrics gleam with mischief, often giving Curtis Moore‘s score a much-needed jolt. The songs work better as clever vehicles for wit than as stand-alone musical achievements, with one undeniable exception. “A Woman Knows,” a wrenching duet about the agonizing choices surrounding pregnancy, pierces the show’s bustling surface and lands like a punch to the chest. It deserves to become a standard.
Krystina Alabado, Kate Rockwell, Isabelle McCalla, and Ryann Redmond
Isabelle McCalla’s Elinor flickers between Regency composure and modern impatience with a wry sparkle. Janine LaManna, in dual roles as the imperious Lady Catherine and the scandalous Madame Restell, prowls the stage with the confidence of someone who knows exactly where the cream is hidden. Ryann Redmond‘s bawdy Petunia and Kate Rockwell’s tender Jane bring warmth and heft, while Gabe Gibbs deftly slips between Jane’s dud of a fiancé, Dingley, and Galloping Dick, a Robin Hood-like robber.
The cast
Even the design team joins the mischief. Anna Louizos‘ clever set slides from prim parlors to a rowdy pub to an abortion clinic to a sexually charged party. David I. Reynoso‘s costumes honor the period with the exception of one very modern surprise. Adam Honoré’s lighting bathes everything in a dreamy glow that seems ready to shatter at any moment.
Gabe Gibbs as Dingley and Kate Rockwell as Jane
The orchestration, however, hobbles the production. Though Moore and co-orchestrator James Sampliner have filled the pit with ten instruments—including two keyboards, two violins, a cello, bass, guitar, drums, and two woodwinds—the sound emerges muddy and synth-heavy. A Broadway-worthy orchestration demands each texture to feel intentional. Strings should shimmer under longing, brass should crack open triumph, and woodwinds should tilt a scene into danger or mischief. Smart orchestrators know when to be lush, when to be spare, and most crucially, when to step back and let the story breathe. This production cries out for a complete reimagining by a veteran like Jonathan Tunick or Doug Besterman.
(clockwise from top left) Krystina Alabado as Dabney, Kate Rockwell as Jane,
Ryann Redmond as Petunia, and Isabelle McCalla as Elinor
The production’s most searing achievement is how it collapses the safe distance of history. Elinor’s frantic journey to secure her future feels unnervingly close to the realities facing many women today. The empire gowns and antiquated diction create a fragile shield that buckles as the parallels sharpen.
Janine LaManna as Lady Catherine and Sav Souza as Scutter
The audience at the performance I attended greeted the curtain call with a thunderous standing ovation, a response that felt more like genuine exhilaration than polite obligation.
(from left) Janine LaManna as Madame Restell,
Krystina Alabado, Ryann Redmond, Isabelle McCalla, and Kate Rockwell
Can Regency Girls make the leap to Broadway? It has the bones. First, though, it needs to lose about twenty minutes, retire a few jokes, cut a couple of the lesser songs, and completely re-do the orchestrations. A final sprinkle of star power—a Lillias White, a Lesli Margherita, an Ariana DeBose, or a Bonnie Milligan (all of whom have been connected to the show’s development)—would give it the voltage it still lacks.
With those fixes, Regency Girls could become the kind of messy, necessary rebellion Broadway did not even know it needed.
Krystina Alabado as Dabney and Sav Souza as Scutter
photos by Jim Cox
Regency Girls
The Old Globe
1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park
2 hours 25 minutes with one intermission
ends on May 4, 2025 EXTENDED to May 11, 2025
for tickets ($31 and up), call 619.234.5623 or visit The Old Globe
